United States GP: Leclerc leads second practice ahead of Bottas

Leclerc was one of three drivers to run two of the 2022 Pirelli compounds – along with Valtteri Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo – because he sat out FP1 with Robert Shwartzman driving his F1-75 as part of the rookie practice running mandated in the 2022 rules. 

As the rest of the field completed set run plans dictated by Pirelli on two of its prototype compounds for next year – given to the teams in ‘blind’ allocation, with the drivers required to run both types but unaware which was which during their testing running – that trio duly set the session’s fastest times. 

They were allowed 35 minutes to get up to speed for the first time around the Austin track for the first time in 2022, before then joining their colleagues on the unmarked rubber.  

This is from the harder end of Pirelli’s 2023 range, with the soft compounds being trialled in the FP2 session for next weekend’s Mexican GP after that testing had to be dropped at the wet event in Japan last time out. 

Bottas led the pack out of the pits for the start of the extended 90-minute session, with Ricciardo trailing behind – the pair having been replaced by Theo Pourchaire and Alex Palou at Alfa Romeo and McLaren respectively in FP1. 

 Running the 2022 medium tyres, Bottas established the first-place benchmark at 1m40.655s before Ricciardo nipped ahead on a 1m40.474s also using the yellow-walled tyres. 

After five minutes, Leclerc beat both with his first run – using the 2022 softs – to go top on a 1m38.856s. 

He was briefly deposed by team-mate Carlos Sainz, who was running prototypes from the off as he had topped FP1, before Leclerc re-established his place at the top of times with a 1m37.614s to close out his softs-shod run. 

After a quick trip to the pits to switch to the mediums, Leclerc set the quickest time of FP2 just before the 15-minute mark – a 1m36.810s. 

He pitted immediately afterwards and after a near 10m-minute stint in the Ferrari garage, he completed his permitted time on the 2022 tyres completing a high-fuel run, with his times coming in around five seconds slower than his personal best. 

This replicates a typical FP2 session, but with this session starting three hours later than the 2pm race start time on Sunday, conditions were not completely comparable. 

As Leclerc was doing this, Bottas and Ricciardo had finished their 2022 tyre running on a contra-run plan – moving from the mediums to the softs. 

Ricciardo moved ahead of Sainz to run second 0.817s adrift of Leclerc with 23 minutes on the board, followed a few seconds later by Bottas, who put in a time just 0.029s slower on his first softs flier. 

Five minutes later at the one-third distance mark, Bottas put in another flying lap to pip Ricciardo and take second behind Leclerc – 0.715s slower than the Ferrari. Sainz headed the drivers that only ran the new prototype compounds, which included Kevin Magnussen and Nicholas Latifi despite this pair also sitting out FP1, with Haas and Williams opting to stick to a 2023-tyre-only run plan. 

This was dictated by Pirelli and was compromised of four runs – two ‘performance’ tests at 20kg fuel load and two long-run stints with the cars starting with 100kg of fuel. 

The quickest times of the performance runs – five laps in total, with three push laps required either side of out- and in-laps – came in the first stint, with Sainz’s 1m38.763s that briefly put him quickest then beaten by his 1m38.232s. 

Sainz was followed by Mick Schumacher, Lando Norris and Max Verstappen, with Lewis Hamilton, Pierre Gasly and Sergio Perez rounding out the top 10. 

After the two five-lap performance runs had been completed, the drivers were then required to complete two stints of 8-laps on the higher fuel level. 

The times on this fuel level came in around 4-5s slower than those set on the lower level. 

Another part of the test included the lower tyre blanket temperatures that will be mandated for 2023 – 50°C, down from the current level of 70°C, and ahead of a planned ban on tyre warmers planned to come in for 2024. 

This could well have been a factor in the high number of mistakes witnessed during FP2 on Friday, with several drivers having lurid slides exiting corners on the tweaked tyres for next year, which are understood to be subtle design changes rather than any wholesale adjustment from Pirelli. 

 These tweaks including making sure the 2023 tyres do not have the understeer characteristic through slow-speed that the drivers have not enjoyed on the current variety.  

Fernando Alonso had a big snap out of Turn 1 – the uphill left-hand hairpin at the start of the Austin lap – and Turn 11 running on to the back straight. 

Hamilton and Norris suffered dramatic slides coming through the fast, downhill left that forms the penultimate corner – with the latter also sliding wildly coming into the pits during the early stages. 

At one point, Sainz described his running on the prototype tyres as “Tokyo drift”. 

The 17 drivers running just the prototypes had their running capped at 26 laps after the four runs required by Pirelli, while Leclerc (37), Bottas (37) and Ricciardo (40) racked up more. 

They closed out the session as the only runners, with Leclerc’s first flying lap on the prototypes coming in 0.1s slower than Sainz’s personal best in fourth overall. 

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	Ferrari	37	1'36.810
2	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo	Ferrari	37	1'37.525	0.715
3	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	Mercedes	40	1'37.627	0.817
4	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	Ferrari	26	1'38.232	1.422
5	Mick Schumacher	Haas	Ferrari	26	1'39.507	2.697
6	Lando Norris	McLaren	Mercedes	26	1'39.547	2.737
7	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	Red Bull	26	1'39.575	2.765
8	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	Mercedes	26	1'39.698	2.888
9	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	Red Bull	26	1'39.840	3.030
10	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	Red Bull	26	1'39.852	3.042
11	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	Ferrari	24	1'40.084	3.274
12	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	Red Bull	26	1'40.178	3.368
13	George Russell	Mercedes	Mercedes	26	1'40.562	3.752
14	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo	Ferrari	26	1'40.664	3.854
15	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	Mercedes	26	1'40.806	3.996
16	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	Renault	26	1'41.310	4.500
17	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	Renault	26	1'41.334	4.524
18	Alex Albon	Williams	Mercedes	26	1'41.853	5.043
19	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	Mercedes	26	1'41.857	5.047
20	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	Mercedes	26	1'42.317	5.507
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